Building a 1U Rackmount Trigger Crossbar: A Tale of Woes and Triumphs

The author details the design and construction of a custom 1U rackmount trigger crossbar for synchronizing multiple instruments in their electronics lab. Built around an FPGA and MCU, the device boasts numerous trigger I/O ports and an Ethernet SCPI interface. The journey, however, was fraught with challenges: power supply issues, soldering mishaps, an FPGA flash pinout error, and even the need for mini-mill surgery on the PCB. Despite these hurdles, the device is now operational, controllable via SSH and SCPI, and serves as a valuable lesson in hardware development.